Amazon is getting into the game development and publishing business. We knew it was only a matter of time, especially after the announcement of Lumberyard, Amazon’s new AAA game engine. Last night, Amazon hosted a special livestream on Twitch to reveal its first three games. Two out of the three look really solid, and one is a straight up attempt to cash in on the latest eSports craze. I’ll describe the three games very briefly.
New World is an open-world, massively multiplayer sandbox RPG set in 17th century Colonial America. Players will work together and assume various rolls to survive in this alternate version of reality where all of the supernatural and superstitious fears that Americans had at the time are actually real.
Crucible is a 12-player, third-person, last man standing shooter. It’s basically Hunger Games in video game form. 12 players enter a dangerous world and have to work together to survive. You’ll have to decide when to partner up with and ultimately betray other players in order to win. All the while a 13th player oversees the whole event and streams the game to viewers. This meta-player can trigger certain events, and apparently viewers will be able to affect the game as well.
Breakaway looks to be the most mundane of the three. It’s a class-based arena brawler where two teams compete to carry a central relic into the other team’s goal. There’s a major focus on buildable traps and devices, and it’s clear that this was designed from the ground up to be an eSports-eligible contender. So far it looks fairly uninspired.
All of these games will integrate with Twitch, which Amazon happens to own. Crazy how that works.
Source: RockPaperShotgun